


behind the mask

by Squiped_Mew



Series: The Tales of Team OMEN (in anachronic order) [3]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Bonding over trauma, Cinder Fall is an asshole, Dehumanization, Emerald Sustrai Needs A Hug, Emerald Sustrai is doing her best, Evernight (RWBY), Fluff and Angst, Gen, Illustrations, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, Its not as dark as it sounds, Memory Alteration, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Minor Injuries, Oscar Pine Needs a Hug, Post-Volume 7 (RWBY), Team Bonding, They all do tbh, omen au, this is really niche, villain AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:40:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26698390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squiped_Mew/pseuds/Squiped_Mew
Summary: “Give that back.” Sure enough, there was a large gash on his face, and while it was already in the process of ‘healing’ and by that, she meant having that disgusting grimm crap grow over it, it looked pretty deep.“If you leave that open, it’ll just get infected.” Emerald remarked, wiping some of the black gunk off of the back of the mask with her sleeve.“...It’ll heal.” Oscar mumbled, and she almost detected a hint of embarrassment in his voice.“No, it’ll just scar over black like the rest of the gunk on your face.” When he didn’t respond, Emerald just sighed. “Look, can I just - help you with that?”(OR: Emerald and Oscar have a moment over stitches)
Relationships: Cinder Fall & Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black & Cinder Fall, Mercury Black & Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black & Oscar Pine, Oscar Pine & Emerald Sustrai, Oscar Pine & Salem
Series: The Tales of Team OMEN (in anachronic order) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1938709
Kudos: 34





	behind the mask

**Author's Note:**

> me: *takes a deep breath*  
> me: i lo-  
> anyone who has spent five seconds around me ever: yes, you love Emerald, we know, you love Emerald so much, she’s the light of your life, you love her so much, you just love Emerald, we KNOW, you love Emerald you fucking love Emerald ok we know, we get it, YOU LOVE EMERALD. WE GET IT.
> 
> I write + draw more about this on my tumblr: https://squipedmew.tumblr.com/

Five people sat in the chairs in Salem’s meeting room.

  
  
  


The windows were still cracked, Emerald noted, a damp breeze brushing over her face. The air was heavy and thick, like the air before a storm. It reminded her of the alleyways back in Vacuo, when she was younger. The days spent running wild. 

“Emerald.” Cinder’s harsh voice dragged Emerald back to reality, and she turned, to see Cinder glaring at her. “Focus.”

“...Sorry ma’am.” Right. Five people sat at the table. 

Watts, brand new scar across his left eye, was scowling at his computer screen. Next to him sat Tyrian, doing the thing where he just grinned at nothing. Hazel, across from him, sent her a sympathetic glance through his furrowed brow. Emerald raised her hand to wave, then thought better of it. Cinder was sitting directly in front of her, Emerald hovering protectively behind her chair, though farther away than usual. Behind her, Neapolitan sat on a crate of dust she had presumably stolen at some point, filing her nails, and further behind her, Mercury was leaning against the wall with the new kid, and, of course, Salem sat at the head of the table, hands folded calmly. 

  
  


No one spoke for a solid thirty seconds. 

  
  


“I’m relieved to see you’re all well.” Salem said finally, voice completely flat. “But.” 

“If I may, I take full responsibility.” Hazel interjected. “I should have been with the kids in the ambush.” 

“That, I can blame on bad planning.” Salem’s black gaze turned to Watts, who blanched under her glare. “But… there’s a more egregious act that’s happened.” 

And, like clockwork, everyone turned to the back of the room. Mercury shuffled aside, revealing the new kid, arms folded across himself protectively, face unreadable behind his white mask.

“Oscar.” Salem doesn’t even need to inject any anger in her voice to make everyone in the room tense. Emerald knows this tone well. The last time she heard it was after the attack on Haven. 

Oscar, somehow, steels himself to look up. 

“I need to talk to you.” She says. “Privately.”

  
  


Mercury and Emerald exchanged looks. Last time she had called someone out like this, it was Cinder, after she and Neo had delivered the Relic of Knowledge to her. 

“And you as well, Arthur.” Watts winced at this as well. “While Atlas wasn’t as big of a failure as Haven,” Everyone flinches at the memory of that, save for Neo, “The results could have been… more to my liking.” She flicks her wrist, and everyone stands. “Don’t disappoint me next time. Dismissed.”

  
  
  
  


* * *

After the big door was shut, Emerald stared at it for a long time, wondering what was going on behind it on the other side. It’s soundproof, she knew, but she can’t help but press an ear against it and strain to listen.

“Emerald.” Inwardly groaning, Emerald turns to see Cinder, standing behind her. “Come with me.”

“...Actually,” And she knows she’s gonna get smacked for defying Cinder, but hey, Emerald’s feeling a bit rebellious today, sue her. “I’m gonna wait here.”

Cinder frowns. “Why?” She hissed, teeth gritted at Emerald’s defiance. “For that  _ thing  _ to come out?”

“He has a name.” Emerald retorts, and it’s the first time in a long time that she’s ever snapped back at Cinder. But ever since they left Atlas, she felt… different. The same sick feeling she got when they were recording all of the havoc back at Beacon.

...Guilt?

No… this was different. Pity, she decided. 

Cinder, however, felt no such thing. “Maybe when he was alive.” She remarked. “But that thing isn’t. It’s a dead corpse walking, and interacting with it is pointless.” Brushing past her shoulder, Cinder walked down the hall, heels clicking on the floor. “But go knock yourself out. Just don’t come crying to me when it doesn’t work the way you want it to.”

Emerald glared daggers at Cinder until she was out of eyeshot. Sighing, she pressed her back to the wall, sliding down onto the cold stone floor. Ignoring the churning in her stomach, she took out Thief’s Respite, staring at her reflection in the blade. 

She looked… tired. Sad. Annoyed. A far cry from the confident thief she once was. 

Emerald exhaled, letting her head lull onto the wall. “What am I doing…” She mumbled, rubbing her temples. She was no stranger to second thoughts about this whole ‘working with Salem’ thing, but they had really hit a stride this past week. Maybe it was the winter season, maybe it was PMS, sue her. The only thing Emerald was sure of, was that she wanted to be anywhere but here. 

The door opened. 

  
  


Emerald watched as Oscar slunk out of the meeting room, closing the door quietly behind him. Ever since he had shown up, the atmosphere of the group had been… divided, to say the least. Some despised his presence, and others just tolerated him. Watts in particular took great pride in his appearance, as he was partly responsible for some of the… changes that had been made to the boy. 

Emerald, frankly, found the whole situation slightly messed up. 

Okay, _very_ messed up. But hey, what was she supposed to do about it? Politely ask Salem to stop experimenting on people? Yeah, like that would go over well. Watching the boy shuffle down the hall, she considered just leaving him alone, and just going about her day. But, like with Tukson, with Torchwick, and Cinder’s training, Emerald could never just leave well enough alone. 

“You dropped this.” 

  
  


Oscar turned, to see Emerald holding out his sheathed sword. In reality, he hadn’t dropped it, she had just swiped it from his belt, but she always found that giving something back that a person had ‘dropped’ was usually a good conversation starter. 

Oscar took it. “...Thanks.” he mumbled in his usual dead tone. With that, he turned back down the hall. 

Emerald was just about to give up, when she saw something. A small trail of brackish blood droplets on the floor. 

“Hey.” Oscar stopped. “Is that yours?” Emerald asked, pointing to the blood on the floor. 

“...No.” He replied, turning away. Quickly, Emerald maneuvered over using her Semblence, swiping off his mask.

“Give that back.” Sure enough, there was a large gash on his face, and while it was already in the process of ‘healing’ and by that, she meant having that disgusting grimm crap grow over it, it looked pretty deep. 

“If you leave that open, it’ll just get infected.” Emerald remarked, wiping some of the black gunk off of the back of the mask with her sleeve.   
  


“...It’ll heal.” Oscar mumbled, and she almost detected a hint of embarrassment in his voice. 

“No, it’ll just scar over black like the rest of the gunk on your face.” When he didn’t respond, Emerald just sighed. “Look, can I just - help you with that?”

“...It’s not a big deal.” 

“It’s not, but you look shitty enough.” Emerald shrugged, turning on her heel. “I have a first aid kit in my room, be right back.”

Darting down the hall, she ran into her room. It was pretty barren, a single bed and a desk being the only things in it, purple evening light filtering through the barred windows. It felt more like a cell than a room, and Emerald preferred to spend as little time in it as possible. Shuffling through her drawers, she grabbed the first aid kit, thick with dust. It had been a while since she had to use it, since most of the time, Cinder patched her up. 

  
  


Cinder. 

  
  


She owed Cinder everything. That was something Emerald told herself over and over again, when she was having doubts in the dead of the night. 

_ “Cinder doesn’t care about you!” _

And yet…

_ “She doesn’t care about either of us!” _

  
She couldn’t deny what Mercury had said to her that night had really affected her, more than she’d like to let on. And when she’d go back, and look over all the events that had led up to this in her mind… sometimes, she can’t help but agree. 

That doesn’t matter right now. She thought, gritting her teeth. There had always been good days with Cinder too, and those were what she clung onto when the waters got rough.

  
  


She was just having a bad week. 

  
  
  
  


* * *

“You’ve ever gotten stitches, kid?” Oscar shook his head. “Well, essentially, I’m gonna sew up your face.”

“I know what stitches are.” He replied back. 

Emerald sighed. “Just - this is gonna sting a bit.” Pulling out a cotton swab, she dabbed some peroxide on the cut, causing Oscar to flinch so bad, he nearly dropped his sword. “Hey, chill out. It’s disinfectant.”

“I already told you, it’s not gonna get infected.” Despite the shreds of annoyance in his voice, Emerald can’t help but feel a bit better at the sight of there still being a little bit of life left in the kid. 

“Well, it’ll gunk over, or whatever. And that can’t be good for your complexion.” Throwing the swab to the side, she took out the needle and thread, ignoring how her hands shook whenever she did this. “Stay still.” 

She jabbed the needle in, and Oscar flinched so hard, he punched her in the arm. “FUCK!” She shouted. “Gods, that hurt!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry -” He blurted out, but Emerald held up a hand. 

“No, you’re good, just - shit, you scared me. You’re stronger than you look.” Picking the needle back up, she resumed, trying not to jump back every time he flinched. 

“Sooooo,” She started, trying to distract herself from the awkward atmosphere of the situation. “What’d she say to you?”

“...Oh.” And maybe she shouldn’t have brought it up, but Emerald was curious. “...She just asked me about the caves.” 

“Right.” The skirmish with Team RWBY and co, and how Ruby and him had fallen into the caverns below them. “What happened in there, exactly?”

Oscar looked down, eyes fixed firmly on his boots. “...Nothing important.” He muttered. 

Emerald arched an eyebrow. 

“I’m serious!” And Emerald couldn’t help but snort at that, despite the rather morbid scenario. “I just… hesitated.”

“Hesitated?” And hesitation was one thing that was very much looked down upon at Evernight. “What for?”

“Well…” Still not looking at her, Oscar continued quietly. “We were both injured… and she had taken my sword.”

“Mhm.”

“And we decided to truce, so we could both get out of there, since neither of us would have survived on our own anyways.”

“Kay.”

“And… when she was asleep.” Oscar sounded almost guilty now, rays of life breaking through his usual stone cold tone. “I stole my sword back. I was going to kill her when she was asleep.”

“Right.” (No, it wasn’t right. He shouldn’t be talking so casually about that.)

“And… I couldn’t.” He stuttered out. “I just… couldn’t. I stopped.”

“...Why?” 

“I don’t know!” Oscar exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. “I just… couldn’t.”

“...Huh.” Watts had told them that Oscar's memories had been altered, but could it be that he was starting to remember his past with more clarity? And not just the bad parts? “What happened after that?”

“...We got out of the cave, and I sent up the flare. After that, Watts came to get me.” Oscar said, and Emerald shuffled awkwardly. “It was a mistake. It won’t happen again.”

“...Okay then.” Emerald wanted to press, but decided against it. “And Salem got mad?” Saying that was a mistake, because Oscar flinched again. “Sorry, too soon?”

“No - I just… It won’t happen again.” And his tone went back to almost robotic. Emerald sighed. There probably wasn’t much use in trying to reason with him, but still. She couldn't help but feel… bad?

No. This was definitely guilt. 

  
  


“Done.” Pulling the thread tight, she put the spool and thread back in the first aid kit, pulling out a roll of bandages. “Just put this on, and don’t take it off for a few days.”

“Got it.” Tearing off a strip, he slapped it half-hazardly over the injury, before wincing at his own force. “...Ow.” 

“Be gentle with yourself, geez.” Emerald ribbed good-naturedly, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Even Mercury takes better care of himself than you.” 

“...I’m sorry?”

“It’s a joke.” 

“Oh.” A ghost of a smile passed across Oscar’s face, and Emerald smiled. “Cool.”

  
  


“HEY!” The two of them turned, to see Mercury running down the hall, carrying two cups of noodles. “I got food.”

“Niiiiice.” Emerald took a cup, but not before looking at Oscar. “You want some?”

Oscar looked both ways, as if to see if anyone else was in the room, before pointing at himself. “...You’re asking me?” 

“No, I’m asking the invisible guy behind you.” When Oscar looked around, still confused, Mercury rolled his eyes. “Of course I’m asking you, stupid.” 

“Oh - Oh!” He looked at Emerald, then back at Mercury. “...Do you have enough?” 

“We have so much of this crap, it’s unbelievable.” Emerald remarked. “You can get like, twelve of these for like, a lien.” She held hers out to him. “Here. I’ll go get another one.”

“...Okay.” Grabbing the cheap plastic fork, Oscar started shoveling noodles into his mouth, only stopping at Emerald’s look. “What?” he asked. 

“You’re almost as bad as Mercury.” She grumbled, gesturing to the boy next to her, who was also shoveling noodles into his mouth.

“I’m hungry Emerald, give me a break!” 

  
  
  
  
  


* * *

Emerald had a comprehensive list of ‘days that don’t completely suck,’ that she keeps in her mind and likes to think about during the long cold nights when she can’t sleep. 

There’s five of them. 

_ The day Cinder took her and Mercury out to a fancy restaurant for the first time.  _

_ The day she and Mercury went shopping for gear.  _

_ The day when Hazel surprised her with a cake on her birthday. _

_ The day when she had found a cat when she was little, only letting it go after the owner turned up.  _

_ And the day when Cinder rescued her.  _

  
  


And now, she added another to her mental list, as Emerald laid down to sleep.

  
  


_ The day when She, Merc, and Oscar all ate ramen together and just generally had a decent time.  _

  
  
  


(And sometimes, she can fool herself into thinking that the next day will be just as good too.)

**Author's Note:**

> Discord: https://discord.gg/7fGKDJ2
> 
> youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1PtaW8dTzCzlDfb76VRU9Q


End file.
